A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Hunter, Anne

HUNTER, Anne, a Scotch lady, wife of John Hunter the surgeon, and sister of Sir Everard Home the physician. She was born 1742, and died 1821. The Hunters lived in Leicester Square during Haydn's first visit, and were intimate with him. Mrs. Hunter wrote the words for his 12 Canzonets (1792), of which the first six were dedicated to her and the second six to Lady Charlotte Bertie. Hunter's death (Oct. 16, 1793) put a stop to the acquaintance. Mrs. Hunter published a volume of poems (1801; 2nd ed. 1803), which are condemned by the Edinburgh and praised by Blackwood. She was also probably the author of both words and melody of 'Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament.' She is mentioned in Robert Burns's MS. 'Edinburgh Commonplace-Book,' and two poems by her—'To the Nightingale, on leaving E[arl's] C[ourt], 1784,' and 'A Sonnet in Petrarch's manner'—are there copied out by the Poet, the only poems which received that distinction.

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